Jefferson County Commission fails to post fiscal documents online

View full sizeThe Jefferson County Commission has failed to post financial statements and other documents on its website.

The Jefferson County Commission has not posted vendor contracts, meeting minutes, updated financial documents and other information on its website as required by a state law passed last year.

The county's failure to follow the Jefferson County Commission Accountability Act has angered some legislators who said the law was designed to create transparency in a government with a history of corruption and mismanagement.

The law required that the county post a number of financial documents by mid-May. As of Friday afternoon, the only information posted on jeffconline.jccal.org, the county's main website, was the approved operating budget for fiscal 2009, a one-page summary of the fiscal 2010 budget and the first-quarter review presented at the Jan. 13 finance committee meeting.

The law requires that all official budgets be posted within 45 days of adoption by the County Commission. The 2010 budget was adopted Sept. 22.

Other information required by law and not posted as of Friday afternoon included agendas and minutes from County Commission and committee meetings, a quarterly listing of all active contracts, quarterly budget reports and the county's three most recent annual financial audits.

"This is clearly a continuation of the same disdain for public disclosure that led to the passage of that law attempting to get improved transparency to the public in Jefferson County," said State Rep. Greg Canfield, R-Vestavia Hills.

Canfield and Rep. Paul DeMarco, R-Homewood, who co-sponsored the legislation, said the measure was intended to help create responsible financial management, sound fiscal controls and effective supervision of departmental operations in Jefferson County.

Commissioner Shelia Smoot, who has responsibility for the information technology department that oversees the website, said she has had problems getting documents for the website.

"The only control that we have over information is when the department heads and the county attorneys and others provide it for us," Smoot said. "Our only thing is to disseminate it. But we have to get it in our hands, too, and, frankly, we don't get it either."

Smoot and other commissioners receive meeting agendas and vote to approve minutes of previous meetings each week.

In August 2009, the state Legislature passed two bills relating to Jefferson County. The first authorized the County Commission to collect until Jan. 1 an occupational tax of 0.5 percent on the salaries of many people who work in the county. Starting Jan. 1, the law let the commission impose a new occupational tax of 0.45 percent of the compensation.

The second bill passed was the accountability act, which requires the county to hire a county manager by April 2011 and to post a variety of documents on its website.

"The law was passed because Jefferson County taxpayers are anxious to see more transparency in county finances," said DeMarco. "I am disappointed to hear there has been a failure to comply with the accountability law. I hope they will quickly come into full compliance. There has been ample time to follow the law."

County Finance Director Travis Hulsey said some of the information can be viewed at www.jeffcofinance.com, a website used solely for financial documents, where audits from fiscal 2006 and 2007 and compiled financial statements for 2007 and 2008 are stored.

Hulsey said he gives the commission monthly updates on the county's finances and acknowledged that information should be put on the main website and updated.

Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, said members of the legislative delegation who supported the accountability bill expected the commissioners to provide all of the information.

"I don't think it's too difficult to comply with the provisions of that law," Waggoner said.

Smoot said some department heads are reluctant to adjust to an E-government model.

"The struggle has been you have half of the elected body and department heads who want it and another half who don't, so it's been a turf war with us and other departments as to how much information they will allow us to put online," Smoot said.

Smoot said she has asked that officials in the IT department sit with the minutes clerk to make sure the agendas and minutes get online.

"Frankly, I haven't been able to crack through that," Smoot said. "I am going to ask the commission to let our team get in there and do what we've done for every other department -- make them more efficient and get them into the 21st century."

Andreas Rauterkus, a University of Alabama at Birmingham finance professor, said county officials should make all of the information readily available.

"The more information the county is willing to give to people, the more people will be willing to trust them," he said.